


Susie and Noelle skip the dance

by Madeline69



Series: Susie and Noelle do stuff. [1]
Category: Deltarune (Video Game)
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, F/F, First Kiss, Growing Up, Heart-to-Heart, School Dances, Teenage Rebellion, Trans Female Character, Transphobia, Vandalism, Young Love, anti-capitalist sentiments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-23 21:55:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16627142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madeline69/pseuds/Madeline69
Summary: After a run in with Berdly, Susie and Noelle find somewhere else to hang out.





	Susie and Noelle skip the dance

**Author's Note:**

> This is a continuation of my other fic: Susie comes out to Noelle, but you don't need to read that one to understand this one, so I'm treating them as separate things. Partially inspired by a piece of art by http://doreenchartreuse.tumblr.com/

The ninth-grade end of the year dance. It's a weird amalgam of under the sea and non-denominational holiday themed. The student council really did go all the way in on this one though. For what could be considered their first 'date' Susie and Noelle have dressed up - Susie, in one of her mother's ties, and Noelle in a Christmas-tree-themed dress. So far they've been dancing pretty lazily to all the pop hits from a year ago that the teachers could find on their collective iTunes accounts, but their playlist is coming to a change.

 “Alright, all you uh, dudes and dudettes.”

 “We’re gonna slow it right down for, uh, yall. This one’s a real classic.”

The speakers start to drone out a slow, melancholy piano tune. Noelle and Susie, who up until now have been dancing apart in a clump with Kris and Ralsei, lock eyes. Susie puts her game face on and offers her open hand.

 “May I have this dance, Miss Holiday?”

Noelle laughs.

 “Well, I can't rightly say no to such a beautiful young woman’s proposition.”

By the time their pageantry is finished, Kris and Ralsei have been together for several minutes by now. They come together in that awkward huggy kind of way, and for a moment, they feel weird. It takes a few seconds, but then they just go with it. They lean into each other, let the slow piano tune become all they can hear, and just sort of rock back and forth in each other's embrace. For a few moments it’s kind of magical 

 "It’s like a sweater that fits just right."

 "What was that?"

 "Nothing."

 "Excuse me."

It’s Berdly. He volunteered to chaperone, the fucking narc.

 “School rules state that couples have to be six inches apart. You too Kris and...

 "...goat.”

Susie takes a look around, it's clear from the way the crowd is parted that Berdly clearly made a bee line over here past several couples who were definitely not six inches apart. The only couples that seem to have incurred the reminder are… well, non-boy-girl couples.

 “Are you kidding me Berdly?”

 “Just doing my job.”

He seems to take too much pride in that.

 “Wouldn’t want anything perverse happening, or should I say…”

Berdly looks Susie in the eyes, then down at her crotch.

 “Anything  _more_ perverse.”

Noelle steps in-between Berdly and her girlfriend.

 “Fuck you Berdly. You don’t get to talk to her like that.”

 “I can talk to /it/ any way I want.”

 “Excuse me?”

Noelle steps up to Berdly, although she's several inches shorter than him, Berdly takes a half step back.

 “What’re you gonna do Holiday? Tell a teacher?”

 “I’m gonna knock your fucking teeth out is what I’m gonna do.”

 “Noelle."

Susie puts her hand on Noelle's shoulder, not hard, but firm. Kris and Ralsei have already left.

 "Leave it. Let’s just go somewhere else.”

 “But-”

 “I mean it. It’s not worth it.”

 

 

* * *

 

It's around 5:00 pm, Susie and Noelle have left the dance, much to the delight of Berdly. The two of them have been walking down the side of an industry road. It’s darkish - late November - and Susie is kind of sulking, but she’s leading the way.

 “Why wouldn’t you let me hit him?”

 “Wouldn’t have been worth it.”

 “Yeah, you said that, but you throw that kid around every day.”

 “You don’t.”

 “What do you mean I don’t?”

 “I mean I already kinda gave up on being the good kid. You haven’t.”

 “I want to be a bad kid though! I like you cuz you’re bad!”

 “Oh yeah, baby. Bad to the bone.”

Susie laughs at herself.

 “Buhbuhbuhbuhbuhbuh bad”

She mutters.

 “Susie, c’mon.”

 “Hey, now you c’mon."

 "That dance sucked anyway.”

 “I guess.”

Noelle takes a deep breath.

 “Where are we even going anyway?”

 “You really wanna be a bad kid?”

 “I- Susie I..."

 "...don’t want my first time to be in a park.”

 “Don’t be gross!"

Susie stutters for a moment, struggling to regain her composure. She takes a deep breath, decides not to address the question of their 'first time'

 "I’m taking you to the only place in town where the monsters are bigger than me!”

They stop in front of an old abandoned factory with an old worn mural on the side; a child sits on top of a grassy hill sipping a glass bottle of clear liquid. A block of text in the sky above him reads: “Lucky 7 Seltzer Company: A subsidiary of the Angel Corporation.”

Susie walks up to the fence and pulls aside one of the bars loosened by time.

 “After you m’lady.”

 "Is this abandoned?"

Noelle is shaking, a grin crawling across her face as she climbs through the hole.

 "S'far as I know."

As Susie approaches the door she pulls a knife out of her pocket. She jams it into a door jamb and starts to try and jimmy the lock.

 “Oh, can you text my mom and tell her that we’re here?”

 “Won’t you get in trouble?”

 “Nah. I’ve been coming here since before she was my mom, so like… she doesn’t really have a leg to stand on if she wants to stop me.”

 “Fair enough.”

Noelle pulls out her phone and texts Susie's mom.

 

 

 

 

> “Hey Miss Ratty, it’s Noelle Holiday.”
> 
> “Me and Susie left the dance, we’re at a place called Lucky 7 Bottling Company.”
> 
>  

A few minutes pass where Susie is just grunting and fucking with the lock.

 

 

 

 

> “Oh shit I used to go there when I was yalls age.”
> 
> “Fuck yes teenage rebellion.”
> 
> “Don’t get tinnitus”
> 
> “tetanus* lol”
> 
> “Lemme kno if yall need a pickup.”
> 
>  

Susie gives up on the lock and kicks the door open with her big boot with BANG that echos through the night.

 “Jesus Susie!”

 “Sorry.”

The factory is full of machines to the surprise of no one. A conveyor belt full of broken glass bottles seems to have been halted mid-production. Bottling machines have been all but beaten to pieces by the previous visitors to this place. 

 “Where are the monsters?”

 “These are the monsters baby!”

Susie runs up and kicks one of the bottling machines with a loud, echoing thunk. She runs and kicks another one, and another, and another. She’s out of breath when she turns to look at Noelle.

 “You still angry or what?”

Noelle's grin takes over the rest of the bottom half of her face as she kicks off her fancy dance heels, clop-clopping out of them with her time hardened hooves. She takes a running start at one of the machines, jumps and kicks it with both feet. The top-heavy machine teeters back and forth. Susie panics breifly, grabs Noelle by the sholder of her dress and drags her out of the path of the falling machine... which does not in fact fall.

 "You’re my hero.”

 "Well- whatever!"

 "It looked like it was going to fall."

Noelle gets up and starts to take a run at another machine.

 “WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT. Not that one.”

 “Aw c'mon! I only got to do one!”

 “No no, check this out.”

Susie jimmies open one of the machine's maintenance panels, inside is a cardboard box labelled “susie’s secret stuff”. Inside the box, there are a bunch of those little airplane bottles of alcohol, a porn magazine with most of the pages torn out, a small key on a string, and a blue, pink and white flag that's slightly torn at the one visible corner

 “I should take that home actually.”

Susie takes the folded flag and the key. Then offers the rest of the open box to Noelle.

 “Want a drink?”

Noelle considers the little bottles for a few moments.

 “Yeah, sure.”

Her hand hovers over the box. She starts to reach for a bottle of clear liquid labelled with a peppermint, but Susie gently covers her hand.

 “This your first time?”

 “Maybe.”

Noelle is a little indignant.

 “Not that one. Here this one tastes like apple pie.”

 "Apple pie is more of a Thanksgiving thing. I gotta stay on brand."

 "On brand?"

 "Noelle is French for Christmas..."

 "Holy shit your whole name is Christmas Holiday."

 "Yeah, so give me the peppermint thing."

 "If you drink the peppermint thing you will die."

 "Maybe I wanna die!"

 "You don't wanna die like this!"

 "Fine."

She takes the apple pie bottle, takes off the cap with a series of cracks, and takes a sip. The amber liquid is sour, kind of gross, but not without appeal. Susie and Noelle keep hitting stuff until they're all sweaty and both a little drunk. Susie lies down on the floor, taking a break while noelle keeps on whacking. She closes her eyes, focuses on the rhythm of the metallic booms, the cold, smooth cement. The smell of apple pie. She's just not mad anymore. The fire has gone out and there isn't the same knot in her belly that there used to be. The banging stops after several minutes.

 "How're you doing Susie?"

 "Doing so good."

 "I think I got it all out."

 "Cool."

Susie gets up, takes Noelle by the hand.

 "Wanna see the coolest spot in this place?"

 "Can we just kind of chill when we get there?"

 "Sure."

Susie leads Noelle up several flights of stairs onto the roof. The quiet town below seems to be going to sleep one light at a time. Beyond that, the harbour is abandoned, save for a lonely lighthouse illuminating the caps of rolling waves. Over the water the downtown core of the city can be seen, pillars of illuminated glass reach into the heavy cloud cover. Noelle suddenly feels very small. She sits down on an unidentifiable block of metal close to the edge of the roof. Susie sits next to her, leaning in and letting her scratchy hair cascade over her girlfriend's shoulders. She takes off her tie and puts it in her pocket.

 “you need a haircut.”

 "yeah"

They let a few moments of silence pass as something begins eating at Noelle.

 "Can I talk to you about something?"

 "That could be our catchphrase as a couple."

 "Is that a yes?"

Susie nods. Noelle takes a deep breath, snuggling up closer to her girlfriend.

 "I um-"

 "What do you think is gonna happen when we grow up?"

 "I dunno."

 "Wondering about stuff that I'm never gonna be able to figure out kinda stresses me out."

 "But, uh..."

 "What's eating you Holiday?"

 "I um..."

 "...kind of set this impossible standard by being the perfect kid, nd it was always easy because it was easy being perfect. Now that we're in high school what perfect means has changed. Its changed from being the person who's learned the most to the person who is most skilled..."

 "...the most valuable..."

 "...pretty soon I'm going to have to get a job and then what? I've been special my whole life, and now I'm realizing that I'm always gonna be a cog in the money machine."

 "I just tricked myself into thinking I was special... I tricked everyone into thinking I was special and now I'm not good enough for anybody."

Susie pulls Noelle in tight against her chest, seemingly trying to stifle her shuttering breaths by sheer strength alone. She starts to rub up and down Noelle's arm, a trick she's had her mom try on her a few times. It seems to calm her down just slightly. 

 “I think you're special.”

 "You-"

 "What?"

 “I think you're special.”

 “I think the way you stood up for me at the prom was pretty special.”

 “I think your thoughtfulness is special.”

 “I think, how excited you get to learn something new, that's special,”

 "and you're right, society won't always recognize that, and people will say you're not good enough,"

 "but fuck those people. Fuck society!"

Susie shouts this out into the night, causing Noelle to jump a little.

 "Fuck anybody who says you're not special."

 "You're special to me, and you only gotta be special to one person to be special."

 “Is that how the rules work?”

 "Those are the exact rules."

Noelle laughs, wiping away her tears.

 "I dunno. I thought growing up meant people like Berdly were supposed to go away too."

 "Now I'm just finding out that, instead of going away, people like Berdly get all the power."

 "It’s fine Noelle, I don’t like slow dancing that much anyway."

 "Well, I kinda like it. and I like you,"

 "and also it doesn’t matter if we like it or not cus people like Berdly are always gonna exist for the people who do like slow dancing."

 "Yeah, Fuck Berdly"

 "Literally fuck Berdly so much."

 "Yeah. I used to be his friend."

 "Is that why he knows about your transness?"

 "Yep."

 "..."

 "Hey, how much does Berdly piss you off?"

 "Like 100%"

 "Like would you say that he pisses you off a ‘special occasion’ amount of pissed off?"

 "What do you mean?"

 "Well..."

 

* * *

Susie's key turns in the lock of a heavy wooden door marked as storage. She starts to push the door open, only to let it thunk against something and get stuck a few inches open. She kneels down and reaches around the bottom of the door, unlocking something and producing a pair of clicks that allow the door to slide open freely. She pushes right through into a room full of crates. There's a pile of junk in the center of the room - broom handles, pieces planks of wood, metal pipes, and various cloudy old safety goggles. Behind the door, Noelle notices of a cart with locking wheels weighed down by several crates. 

 "Clever girl."

 "Thanks."

One of the nearby crates is leaning slightly open and is close enough to see inside. The open crate, and presumably the rest of the crates, are filled with empty glass bottles. The junk pile in the center of the room starts to make sense. Susie goes to https://open.spotify.com/user/ta0tt6qo8ky5pw0jd0aq8f1lf/playlist/087PCJfILBPwNPFOxUIN9N?si=uN1rF9k2SkymXr0DkH-8QQ on her phone as Noelle approaches the pile.

 “I've been saving this for a special occasion, throw me some goggles."

Noelle does, putting on her own pair as she picks up a metal pipe.

 "Are you sure? I don't wanna use up a thing that you’ve been saving"

 "Yeah"

Susie tips over the open crate, scattering bottles across the floor.

 "Fuck Berdly."

She kicks an empty bottle up into the air past Noelle like a baseball pitch. Noelle swings the pipe instinctively, shattering the bottle with a crash and a hollow ring. She feels the harsh vibration roll up the pipe. it stings. Leaves her hands buzzing. The pain must show on her face because Susie stops in the middle of her second kick.

 “You alright?”

 “Yeah. Gimme another one.”

Susie grins, kicking another one up. Noelle is ready this time. She hits the bottle with a major league crack that rings through the night and makes everything else feel silent, spraying her girlfriend with glass that bounces harmlessly off her rough skin. 

 “Oh fuck yes!”

Susie keeps kicking bottles up into the air until that gets boring, then pulls a smaller crate off a high shelf and lets its contents smash around them. Noelle goes to work smashing the bottles that survive the fall. As the floor becomes more and more covered with a thin layer of snow-like glass powder Susie's anger starts to fall. She picks up one of the bottles by the stem and smashes it against the corner of a shelf. A crack runs up the side and in into her palm, cutting some of the only soft skin on her body. Noelle stops what she's doing as she catches a glance of the blood, bright red against the dark purple. She takes off her goggles.

 "Susie, you’re bleeding."

 "yeah."

She picks up another bottle and smashes it in the same way with her other hand, cutting herself again.

 "Susie, stop.’

Susie goes to pick up another bottle, but Noelle kicks it away. She takes Susie's goggles and sweeps her bangs to the side, taking both her hands in her own and examining the cuts; fortunately nothing serious.

 "Susie, stop, you’re bleeding."

 "yeah."

Susie's eyes are damp, she turns to hide her face.

 "Are you okay?"

 "I-"

 "Just fuck Berdly. like big time. Fuck that dude so much."

 “I think it's time to go home.”

 “alright.”

Noelle starts to pull out her phone, wondering how she's going to explain the light dusting of powdered glass and bleeding palms to Susie's mother. Her phone is halfway out of her pocket as Susie leans in and kisses her. Gently, quickly, but excited, like she's testing the water on the first day of summer. She takes Noelle's free hand in her own, no doubt staining her fur a tinge of red.

 “Is that okay? Like, is it fine that I did that?”

 “Uhh. Yeah.”

Noelle is more than a little dazed.

 “Yeah, that's. Super fine. Really fine. Good even.”

 "Cool."

 "Cool."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you want to see Susie and Noelle get into next.


End file.
